1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing device for performing an image editing process on image data obtained by a digital camera, and a printing system for printing the image data obtained by performing an image editing process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, what is called a digital camera has been widely used in capturing an image using an image pickup device such as a charge-coupled device (CCD), etc.
The image data of an image captured by the digital camera can be easily transmitted and treated in an image processing operation. For example, when a captured image is a portrait, it can be finished as a soft image (in a portrait mode) in image processing. When the image is a landscape picture, it can also be reproduced with a subject with higher chroma in vivid color (in a landscape mode), when the image is for a quick moving object such as sporting motion, etc., it is processed with contrast enhancement for higher clearness of the image (in a sport mode), etc. in image processing.
In the image processing, an image can be printed with the emphasized beauty of a picture.
The above mentioned technology of image processing for image data is disclosed by, for example, the ‘Image Processing Method’ of Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 11-239269.
The technology described in the publication discloses the method of stably outputting a high quality image reproduced as a printed image by assigning scene information obtained during image capturing to image data, and setting the optimum image processing condition depending on the scene information in the digital image processing during printing.
Another technology of image processing on image data is disclosed by the ‘Image Forming Apparatus, Displaying Method, and Storage Medium therefor’ of Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 10-200671.
The technology in the publication discloses the method of outputting a user-desired image by recording the finishing information about a film such as a soft focus, a soft finishing instruction, etc. on the magnetic track of the film, and performing image processing according to the finishing information during printing.
In these above mentioned technologies, information about the type of the capture scene with which the image is captured is added to the image data, and the image processing is performed according to the information about the type of the capture scene assigned to the image data in many cases. For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 11-239269, scene information is assigned to image data, and the image is printed during printing, etc. after automatically performing desired image processing according to the scene information by a printer device, thereby automatically printing a beautiful photo. Similarly, in the technology of Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 10-200671, an image is printed after performing the image processing according to the finishing information about the process on image data.
Also popularized recently is application software for image processing capable of fetching image data captured by a digital camera into a general-purpose computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) such as a personal computer, etc., and freely adjusting each parameter in an arbitrary degree of the brightness, chroma, color balance, etc. of the fetched image data. Using the image processing software, a captured image can be treated in a fine adjusting process while being displayed on the PC monitor, thereby generating a user-desired image.
Additionally, in printing a captured image, as described above, the contents of the desired image processing depend on the type of the scene of a captured image in many cases. Therefore, the mode information (a portrait mode, a landscape mode, a sports mode, etc.) during image capturing by a camera is recorded after adding it to captured image data, the mode information is read during printing and treated in image processing depending on each mode, and then printed, thereby realizing a very useful system capable of automatically obtaining a beautiful printed picture.
However, when image data obtained by adding the scene information to a captured image is fetched to a PC, a desired adjustment, process, etc. are performed on the data, and the processed image data is to be printed on a printer device, and if the printer device is configured to print the image by automatically reading mode information and printing after performing corresponding image processing, then, although the image data is processed such that the optimum image can be obtained for printing such as a process of improving the chroma by performing image processing on a PC, a process of performing contrast enhancement. etc., the printer device performs the printing process with further image processing of performing chroma or contrast enhancement, etc. on the image data. As a result, an image different from the user-desired image such as an excessively chroma or contrast improved image, etc. is printed, thereby failing in obtaining a printed image of a desired quality.
To avoid the above mentioned case, it is possible for a user to determine whether or not image processing is performed by a printer device, etc. for performing the printing process each time the printing process is performed, which is a very bothersome operation for the user, though.